NORWICH – Even though the front of the Norwich Pizza Hut is under construction and the parking lot is being paved as part of new half million dollar expansion project, General Manager Derek Jones wants people to know the restaurant is still open for business.
“See everything in here?” said Jones, motioning to the walls, floor and ceiling while a very large lunch crowd filled the eatery Wednesday afternoon.
“Everything will be gone. The lights, the booths, you name it, you see it, all of what our customers see is going to be redone,” he said.
Jones explained the local Pizza Hut had recently broke ground on adding 500 square feet to the restaurant, which will include an area that can be used as a private banquet room.
Town of Norwich Supervisor David Law had nothing but good things to say about the business. “They’ve been here for a long time. They have a great name that draws people in from all over the area and they are very active in the local community.”
Law said the business had sponsored local sports teams, helped raise money for scholarships and provided community participation discounts to youths taking part in extracurricular activities.
“They’ve always been good to us; they’ve encouraged good community practices,” said Law. “They’re one of our more known business in the town and I very happy to see they are doing well, especially in these times.”
Company administrators had been planing for the project for several months and by the time the work is completed, Jones said the restaurant will be hiring a “a couple of more part-time” employees, expanding hours later into the evening, repaving the entire parking lot and offering several new menu items.
Jones added some of the features of the new menu would include “three kinds of wings and nine kinds of sauces and more sandwich and salad options.”
While stacks of cut timber litter the lawn and a wooden frame sits along side the older building, all inside the restaurant remains unaffected so far.
Jones explained that much of the project was aimed at creating as little an inconvenience to customers as possible so the location could continue its regular business.
Jones said he’s been Pizza Hut’s general manager for 23 years. He said the restaurant was built in 1976 and underwent it last major construction project in 1992.
The company expects construction to be completed around mid-November, when the store will officially kick off its new menu. Jones said since signs of construction had become apparent to the public, he had received a “stack of job applications” in the last week already. He said they’d begin looking at hiring additional people in the weeks before the project finishes, but are not hiring now.
Jones said they’d received several calls from people asking if the business was open. “Just to let everyone out there know, we’re still open,” he said.
For more information on some of the menu changes to come, Jones suggested visiting www.pizzahut.com for full details. Currently the business is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday.